From Automation to Personalization: How AI is reshaping customer experience

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing industries across the globe, ushering in a new era of efficiency, accessibility, and deeply personalized customer experiences. Nowhere is this transformation more pronounced than in India, a nation of 1.4 billion people grappling with a unique set of challenges and opportunities in AI-driven innovation.

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At the recent Storyboard18 Global Pioneers Summit 2025, leading executives and technology visionaries gathered to discuss AI’s evolving role in banking, financial services, marketing, co-working spaces, and digital accessibility. Among them were MVS Murthy, Chief Marketing Officer at Federal Bank; Arvind Iyer, Chief Marketing Officer at Piramal Finance; Niraj Ruparel, Creative Tech Lead at WPP & GroupM, India; and Sheetal Vanwari, Chief Marketing Officer at Awfis. Their discussion, titled ‘AI as the New Frontier: The Future of Customer Experience and the Promise of Personalization,’ highlighted AI’s growing influence on consumer interactions and business strategies.

A persistent challenge in India’s AI adoption is the country’s vast digital divide. While millions enjoy high-speed internet and digital-first services, a significant portion of the population still relies on basic mobile devices. AI-powered solutions are now being developed to ensure inclusivity. Voice-based interfaces, available in 22 languages and 780 dialects, are allowing users—even those without internet access—to engage with AI-driven services.

For individuals with disabilities, AI innovations are proving transformative. Live audio dialogue bridges and multimodal AI stacks are enhancing accessibility, while AI-powered voice and vision technologies assist the visually impaired in shopping and financial transactions.

The banking sector has emerged as an early adopter of AI, using it for fraud detection, risk assessment, marketing automation, and regulatory compliance. AI tools are now integral to tracking ATM operations, underwriting loans, and ensuring adherence to policies set by regulatory bodies like the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

Federal Bank’s Murthy highlighted how AI has accelerated operations without compromising trust: “We have touched five lakh crores today, bringing us closer to becoming one of the top five. This journey has been driven by our people and their service orientation. Now, we are leveraging AI across critical areas, from tracking ATMs to managing risk and compliance. Transparency remains key—we proudly state that our content is ‘Imagined by humans, created by AI’ because, for a bank, trust is paramount.”

Despite AI’s growing capabilities, financial institutions remain cautious about automation’s limits. Iyer, of Piramal Finance, emphasized the importance of human oversight: “From the very beginning, we built ourselves as a cloud-first company. Everything we do—whether it’s compliance, underwriting, or policy—has been infused with AI-driven customer experience, enabling deep personalization at every step.”

Beyond banking, AI is transforming customer engagement through hyper-personalization. Financial services and co-working spaces are deploying recommendation engines akin to those used by streaming platforms, tailoring office events, workshops, and services based on individual preferences.

AI’s role in workspace management extends further. By analyzing usage patterns, AI optimizes energy consumption and enhances workplace interactions. Vanwari, of Awfis, described AI’s influence on office environments: “Space management is being revolutionized. AI optimizes energy efficiency, balances ‘me’ spaces for focused work with ‘we’ spaces for collaboration, and even curates engagement activities tailored to employees’ needs.”

In marketing and advertising, AI-generated campaigns are redefining content production. Synthetic celebrity avatars, voice cloning technologies, and AI-driven storytelling are enabling brands to deliver hyper-personalized, region-specific campaigns at an unprecedented pace.

Ruparel, of WPP & GroupM India, recalled the evolution of AI-driven advertising: “Before generative AI, crafting AI-driven campaigns was time-intensive. We once spent hours manually engineering digital characters. Today, AI allows us to reimagine advertising. For instance, we digitally recreated a younger Sachin Tendulkar for an insurance campaign, delivering a powerful message in minutes rather than days.”

The latest breakthroughs include hyper-realistic AI avatars developed using dome camera scanning, Unreal Engine rendering, and automated speech recognition. These AI-powered figures can mimic human expressions and engage with consumers in real time.

AI is transitioning from an auxiliary tool to a strategic partner in decision-making across industries. Companies are integrating AI into IPO filings, resume screening, and market predictions. In customer engagement, AI is evolving into emotion-aware systems capable of recognizing facial expressions and responding accordingly.

Yet, as AI’s reach expands, so do concerns over ethics, accuracy, and regulatory compliance. The banking sector, in particular, must navigate stringent legal frameworks while ensuring transparency and fairness in AI-driven decisions. Experts stress the need for constant refinement, ethical governance, and human oversight to mitigate AI biases and misinformation.

The future of AI in India is not just about automation but about enhancing human experiences. With AI advancing at breakneck speed, its role in redefining customer interactions, operational efficiencies, and business strategies will only grow stronger.

More about the Storyboard18 Global Pioneers Summit

The Global Pioneers Summit is a celebration and exploration of the transformative potential of creativity, empowering individuals and businesses to think differently, act boldly, and craft a future that resonates with purpose and vision. Creativity is not just about artistic expression — it is a force for solving real-world problems, innovating products, and creating connections in ways that traditional methods cannot. And there are pioneers behind this shift, who have dared to think different.

The Global Pioneers Summit stands as a premier celebration of the visionary forces propelling businesses forward, spotlighting the global brands emerging from India — an ever-growing hub of creativity and innovation on the world stage.

From groundbreaking innovations to impactful storytelling, key decision-makers and innovators from business, marketing, advertising, tech, and academia exchange insights, build connections, and draw inspiration from some of the most compelling work driving industries forward globally.

In today's rapidly evolving world, creativity can be a powerful force to drive business growth, shape industries, and influence societal behavior, culture, and values. Storyboard18 Global Pioneers Summit puts the spotlight on the true purpose and power of creativity and the pioneers leading the way.